Scoop!

Don't call Latin Trade slow. I won't be hearin' it

Reuters June 15, 2006...

SAO PAULO - Despite rising costs and obstacles for foreign companies looking to enter Brazil's booming sugar and ethanol industry, analysts predicted more multinational would jump aboard after this week's play by Cargill Inc. for a mill in Sao Paulo state.

"Purchases are becoming more frequent and aggressive," said Julio Maria Borges, director of Job Economia consultancy, noting that Indian and Australian investors were now showing interest in Brazilian mills.

He noted that investment costs have risen in recent years due to greater competition between buyers and sharp rise in sugar and ethanol prices. Even so, US agribusiness giant Cargill on Monday bought a 63 percent stake in the Cevasa ethanol distillery, grabbing a share in the boom in the world's No. 1 sugar and ethanol producer.

Latin Trade Europe Correspondent Meghan Sapp, May 2006...

Sweet Deal

Brazilian companies send ethanol technology abroad to make money, and to improve life in poorer countries.

Brazilian sugar companies are spreading the gospel of ethanol—fuel made from sugar or corn—across the developing world, from the Caribbean to sub-Saharan Africa. Though ethanol has been used as a fuel in Brazil for more than three decades, demand for it only began to pick up after oil skyrocketed on the sudden awakening of the Chinese economy.

As famous names such as U.K. billionaire Richard Branson, Sun Microsystems Founder Vinod Khosla and Microsoft’s Bill Gates write checks into the hundreds of millions of dollars in the race for green fuels, Brazilian companies are already there, doing deals. “Brazil is doing everything it can do to help other countries,” says Paul Wrobel, commercial advisor on sugar and ethanol issues at the Brazilian embassy in London. “It is an intent of Brazil to make the Brazilian experience well known all over the world and make ethanol an international commodity. Brazil cannot be the only world supplier if demand picks up.”

Congratulations Meghan!